Reviews of The guide to pastoral counseling and care; Psychotherapy with priests, Protestant clergy, and Catholic religious: A practical guide; and Spirituality, ethics, and relationship in adulthood: Clinical and theoretical explorations.

Reviews the books, The guide to pastoral counseling and care by Gary Ahlskog and Harry Sands (see record 2000-00411-000); Psychotherapy with priests, Protestant clergy, and Catholic religious: A practical guide by Joseph W. Ciarrocchi and Robert J. Wicks (see record 2000-00453-000); and Spirituality, ethics, and relationship in adulthood: Clinical and theoretical explorations by Melvin E. Miller and Alan N. West (see record 2000-05026-000). Some 90 percent of the American public has at least a conventional affiliation with religion, according to national polls over the last 50 years, yet psychology is one of the professions with a level of religious affiliation variously estimated at 30 to 40 percent. So patients for whom religion is or was important in their lives are quite likely to appear in treatment, and most analysts or therapists are unprepared to understand and professionally respond to the issues these patients raise. Recently, the American Psychological Association (APA) has published three broad, well-structured volumes to fill this gap (Richards & Bergin, 1997, 2000; Shafranske, 1996). If you are interested in learning about the life of religious professionals and the communities with which they work, the three books reviewed here deal with areas that the APA publications do not, with varying degrees of effectiveness. They are all recently published by a division of International Universities Press and are a very diverse set. The Guide to Pastoral Counseling and Care and Spirituality, Ethics, and Relationship in Adulthood: Clinical and Theoretical Explorations are both edited collections, and they evince the characteristics of nearly all edited collections: variations in quality, tone, voice, and utility. Psychotherapy With Priests, Protestant Clergy, and Catholic Religious: A Practical Guide also varies in the theoretical stance it takes, shuttling between cognitive–behavioral, interpersonal, and psychoanalytic perspectives. These three books each have something to offer and their own sets of shortcomings. I do not think that they will substitute for the issues covered in the Shafranske (1996) or Richards and Bergin (1997, 2000) handbooks, but they do provide therapists and analysts with specific information that may be relevant to specific clients. Many analysts may have to grit their teeth at times over therapeutic recommendations, especially in the Ciarrocchi and Wicks book, but that is not what these books should be read for. The practicing clinician will find much of use in the first two books, but less in the Miller and West book. The Miller and West book may appeal to a reader interested in a more philosophical approach from a postmodern perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)